An inevitable progression towards the goals of the White Paper on Education from the mid-Eighties: establish centres of excellence and consolidate admin work for more money to go into R&D in tertiary education. The University of London will soon be an umbrella organisation for no more than four Colleges: Imperial, UCL, Queen Mary and King's if they are lucky (and don't go bust!). And yes, the University of London will just end up being a vestigial structure of name only (sounds like the CCs!

Oh, and LSE Union does have sovereign general meetings - they meet every Thursday during Term (yes, that means WEEKLY general meetings) in the Old Library building. I was once invited along to speak on "Life Outside The NUS", but the Chair was so crap, we ran out of time!!! And they sit in "political parties" with the "Balcony Boys" (ie sports teams) up stairs chucking paper down! Are you still sure IC wants to merge with the dark side of the Uni?!

Hmmm. Having experienced both council and LSE's UGM on a regular basis I can honestly say that LSE once proud claim to be the centre of studetn politics is well and truly dead. Incidentally Quorum for UGM is 125 full members of the Union - imagine that at IC!

The question of Imperial's status as a specialist institution appears to be raised in this article. Perhaps the Rector, with the announcement that Imperial has applied for degree awarding status means that he is planning an Imperial University Brand as an extension of the College.

This could then leave an Imperial College and an LSE, somewhat like the Constituent Colleges of Imperial or UL. This would mean that Imperial wouldn;t lose it's status as a specialist institution, but still be able to offer a larger number of degrees, as well as the financial benefits with merging two institutions admin.

Kings/QM would be QM taking over Kings - QM is in the black (unheard of at IC!!!) and Kings...well... can't rub a couple of brass pennies together!

...QM has had two quorate general meetings this year (quorum being 200) and getting more than 200 each time.

...The University of London Act (1994 I think) paved the way for Constituent Colleges of London University to award degrees, so it should be a pretty trivial matter for Sykes to get degree-awarding status. Indeed, that was the same Act which empowered a new set of University Statutes (I think) which gave the London Colleges the power to make professorial appointments (and create Chairs) without the approval of the University or the Senate.

MC Black is your make to "talk" to about all of this, and as you can see, I have done my fair share!!!!